I am now sitting in a cafe in Quito, Ecuador reflecting on the past twenty-eight days since Megan and I left San Francisco.  Though it´s exciting to be in a new country, I loved Colombia and would have spent a lot more time there if we didn´t have any time restrictions and had a greater budget.  Here are some thoughts about the places we spent time in, keeping in mind that we didn´t spend much more than one week in each spot.....   Bogota  We started in Bogota and though it was less than a month ago, it seems like a really long time since we´ve been there.  I wrote earlier about Bogota, so I´ll be brief.  Bogota is a great city, it´s huge but very easy to orientate yourself in because the city is bordered to the east by part of the Andes mountain range and it´s on a grid - the streets are numbered and consistent (nothing like San Francisco).  I think the best coffee I had in Colombia was in Bogota, at the Oma´s which are high quality coffee spots.  In the north where we stayed with friends of friends, there are busy parks that are surrounded by restaurants, bars, and cafes that spill onto the sidewalks.  It has a great atmosphere and is a great way to pass the time. We did not stay in hostels so we were not surrounded by other backpackers, but we felt like we were the only foreigners in the city...which is obviously a misconception, but it was interesting the attention that we got walking down the street.  I would love to spend more time in Bogota and really get to know the city.   The Northern Coast  We spent a little over a week on the northern coast of Colombia, in a small fishing village called Taganga and a couple days further north at a national park, Parque Tayronna. Megan and I took our first of many bus trips, 17 freezing hours overnight from Bogota to Santa Marta.  Lesson learned - wear 5 layers, socks and sleeping bag and purchase a beanie pronto. We were so relieved and excited to be on the coast.  From Santa Marta we took a twenty minute taxi just over the hill to Taganga.  I fell in love with Taganga but it took a day or two for me to get there.  I have realized that my first impressions here are only that, initial and they usually do not hold up.  Taganga is a tiny little community, there are about two unpaved main roads, packed with tiny outdoor restaurants and general stores. It was certainly not what we were imagining when heading to the Carribean coast. Its beach front was sandyish, gravely and cigarette-butt laden. The salty ocean breeze brought with it occasional wafts of sun-soaked fish guts and mangy almost hairless, starving dogs roamed the streets vying for our attention in hopes that they could snag a scrap of our meal.  We quickly realized this was not where we would be browning on the beach.  The equatorial sun is very hot during the day but the evenings are pleasant with enough breeze to at least stop sweating once the sun goes down.  Sunsets here are amazing, the beach sits between hills on both sides with colorful fishing boats bobbing in the horseshoe bay.  We stayed at a highly recommended hostel - Casa de Felip - with lots of outdoor patios, hammocks slung everywhere and a generally good atmosphere. The people of Taganga are very friendly and seem to be  happy. By the time we left, I think we had talked with every local. Because there doesn´t really seem to be anything to do here, the town throws constant festivals, parties, and political street rallies.  Our last night in Taganga there was a lively festival with a main stage set up where various talent shows entertained the crowd. The streets were closed and packed with Tagangans and backpackers drinking and dancing to the lively salsa music. The kids here are incredible because they´re so curious.  At one point there were kids actually petting my hair. Eight year old girls were grabbing our hands, joining us in their dance circles and showing us how to move our hips.  We continued the night at a nearby bar that was hosting a festival after party and danced and drank until the early morning.  Those of you who know me, know that sadly I was not blessed with incredible rhythm, but it really doesn´t matter here. Everyone dances and the locals are extremely eager to show you how.  Hopefully the next time we post somewhere, we can take salsa lessons. It´s so much a part of the Colombian culture, and makes going out so much fun.  

In the middle of our stay in Taganga we ventured up north to Parque Tayronna, just a couple hours north including a very hot hike through a beachy jungle trail to the most picturesque beach I have ever seen.  We got to Cabo, the furthest beach on the strip to stay, just in time for sunset.  Megan and I just laughed because it was almost cheezy how postcard perfect this spot was - white sand, turquoise sea and an orangey-pink sunset behind the silouette of coconut laden palm trees.  That night we jumped into the ocean to find phosphorous swirling around us! We slept in hammocks, which sounds more romantic than is actually comfortable, as we were also wrapped in mosquito net and dozing off to their horrible buzz.  We spent the next two days just basquing in the sun and exploring the warm clear water, full of bright blue fishies.  It was a good dose of the Carribean, but I don´t think I could have spent more than two days there, it was hot and a little too distracting to even read more than two pages of my book at a time.   
Cartagena   From Santa Marta, along with a couple backpackers we met in Taganga, we took a 5 hour bus ride to Cartagena, wishing to be there for the weekend.  We got there at 8pm and were shocked by the thick hot heat.  I was sweating the second we stepped out of our cab and into the busy streets, with my heavy backpack.  It was a holiday weekend so most of the hostels were fully booked for the next couple days. After a bit of shuffeling from place to place, we found a hostel that had room for the four of us.  And it had air conditioning!  We got settled and went to explore the city. At night the city is really pretty amazing, the colonial architecture is exceptional and the old city wall and other ancient structures are lit up at night, it´s beautiful.  I was sick the first couple days we were here, so I didn´t really get to know the city.  The heat during the day was almost unbearable, so we only explored a little at a time. The old city is beautiful, with brightly colored houses and buildings, narrow cobblestone streets and many statues and monuments representing the glory days of Simon Bolivar.  Cartagena was a major center of early Spanish settlement.  The city wall, which the city is identified by, is said to have taken nearly 200 years to construct and seems to be fully intact now. It is an impressive fortress that once protected the city port from many pirate attacks.  It was a major trading port and also a slave port.  Now it is a huge tourist destination, which is very present when walking the streets during the day.  Cruise ships dump their overweight, sun-deprived American and European patrons, sporting the unbelievably stereotypical khaki shorts and hawaiian print tops into the streets of Cartagena´s old town.  Because of this, walking the streets is actually a bit overwhelming, as we were bombarded by street vendors and Cartagenans just trying to direct us somewhere, regardless of whether we expressed any interest.  Prices are serioulsy inflated for this same reason, which made it difficult to stay for too long, we were going way over budget and not doing that much.  The poor are much more visible here than other places we have been in Colombia.  Kids as young as ten roam the streets, high on crack and other street drugs, begging for food and attention. I´m glad we were able to see Cartagena, it gave me another perspective to think about, and it is an extremely beautiful city but we were ready to head to cooler climates just after spending five days there.

 
Medellin  I wish that I could have visited Medellin 5 years ago and would like to visit it 10 years from now.  Being here, you can feel it changing, the development is very strong and present.  Every building is brick, which makes for beautiful scenery, especially because it is set in a deep green valley.  It is called the city of everlasting spring, which is exactly how it feels. Because the city is developing, the rumble of construction is everywhere, but somehow it does not seem annoying or disruptive. There is a concscious effort being made to improve the city and its reputation.  Medellin was once considered one of the most dangerous places on earth, as the world´s cocaine capital and home to Pablo Escobar. Every local that we talked to seemed to be excited about the recent and current changes being made to improve the city and also that it had changed drastically from just five years ago.  Open air cafes and bars are a constant buzz well into the night, spilling onto sidewalks bordered by redesigned public parks and museums.  In 2004, a ski-lodge-like gondola was added as part of the improved metro system, providing access to the hillside shanty community in northern Medellin, Santo Domingo Savio.  It was once considered a neighborhood to avoid at all cost because of exuberant crime - a taxi would not even drive up there at night for fear of being caught in the crossfire of a drug showdown.  Though the cynderblock houses are still on top of eachother and there are signs of mudslides and obvious poverty, the neighborhood is now considered a lot safer, listed in our guidebook as a main attraction as it is set on top of the hill creating an incredible view of Medellin.  Just last year, the Parque Biblioteca Espana was built atop of the hillside, creating the likes of a community center.  Its really quite an impressive structure, symbolizing very positive changes in Medellin´s landscape and reputation. The energy is infectious and real.  We have been constantly blown away by the friendliness here.  People are curious and seem genuinely interested. 

 
Zona Cafeteria  Actually we only stayed in one town in the coffee country, a sleepy little town called Salento.  I was blown away by its beauty.  It´s surrounded by huge lush hills - I´ve never seen so many shades of green in my life!  We were only here for two days and I could have spent weeks, it was a real retreat.  With a group of backpackers that were staying at the hostel, we took a full day hike up to the Cloud Forest, surrounded by the tall palm trees that are the national tree. The hike was fun, not too strenuous, though we were about 9,000 feet above sea level so I definitely felt the elevation.  At the top we were in the clouds and retreated to this funny little plantation with a couple huts where a very feisty old woman served us coffee and cheese until the rain subsided a bit.  It was a hummingbird sanctuary and the speedy little birds were everywhere.  About five hours after we started at the trail head we had made it back down, thoroughly soaked through our layers and very muddy.  That night and the next day we just relaxed and poked around the town. The town is full of artisans whose shops line the main street of the large stone plaza.  We were there for a full moon and the nights were clear and crisp, it was an incredible atmosphere and very cozy.  After talking with a local who was a little younger than us and an English student at University, he invited us into his home where his mother cooked us arepas and cheese and hot chocolate, while he recorded us reading an article and lists of words in english. The people here are very interested in us and other travelers and many locals wanted to practice there english with us.  Salento is a lovely little town. It is actually known for growing Colombia´s famous coffee and because we felt like we needed to keep moving we did not visit a coffee finca, next time!
 
Colombia is an incredible country and I´m so glad that we started our trip here.  In general, the people are exceptionally friendly, helpful and eager to learn.  Really, I´ve been blown away by the generosity that we´ve encountered here.  Colombia has an unfortunately negative reputation internationally and particularly in the States, but I´ve never felt so welcome to be somewhere where I am clearly a foreigner.  Colombians are very aware of this reputation and eager to turn it around.  A note on the buses - because we got a lot of grief from people worried about these little adventures - In all, we took five buses, the shortest was five hours and the longest was twenty-one hours (mostly overnight trips).  Though we were not incredibly comfortable or able to sleep many consecutive hours at a time, we didn´t encounter any problems or ever feel vulnerable or unsafe and we´ve heard that Colombian buses are actually a lot more comfortable than other SA countries.
 
Ok, I´m done rambling for now!